Sunday, March 20, 2011

Funny, spiritual, amazing!!!

The mission is full of so many different types of experiences. It is wonderful!

Funny.On Saturday night, a member invited us to come over to her 9 year oldson´s birthday party. A few of our appointments fell so we headedover to wish him a happy birthday (and lets be honest...so eat somecake too!). Well when we got there we realized that this was the 9year old birthday party of the century!!! She had all these Brazilianparty foods, soda, and loud music playing as all the kids from theneighborhood danced around, ate, and chatted together. Thedecorations were Halloween/Monster themed and way amazing. The cakewas beautiful and looked like a huge spider web. She of course saidthat she had done very little...but she is that way! A little of hereffort and a "small and simple party" are equal to about 6 weeks ofpreparing if I would to do that same party!! She is pretty amazing!

Anyway, so Sister White and I get there and we are eating a little bitand talking about how the parties will be that we throw for our kidsone day. We just so happened to be talking about how we don't want tobe those types of moms that are "party poopers" when a song came onthat says the phrase "I´m in Miami, B*****" Yeah...***** meaning badword!! We looked at each other and tried to decide what to do. If weshould tell her since its in English so they don't know or if we shouldjust let it go. Well as it kept repeating the phrase over and overagain and then had a part that just says the phrase about 15 times ina row (AHHH...clean missionary ears CANNOT hear that word!!!) wedecided we should probably mention it to her. When she came out ofthe kitchen again she saw our faces (I guess we had a worried look orsomething...dont know) and asked what it was. We laughed and told herand she ran into the room and switched the music saying to the wholegroup of children and her son in particulary that the song "has a badword...The Sisters said so." We heard her from outside and justlooked at each other...UH OH!! Now they are going to hate us!!!! Whatwere we just saying about not wanting to be partypoopers???....yeah....that went well!! He got a little mad since itsone of his favorite songs and he didnt know. But when Sister Whiteasked a little while later to listen to Justin Bieber, he got over themadness real fast. He LOVES Justin Bieber so that made his day!

So funny. Gotta love it.

We also got to celebrate earlier that day, the birthday of two supercute twins. They are the kids of a recent convert, Adriana, who isamazing! Sister White made them crowns and we stopped by to give themto them. They are ADORABLE!!! And soooooo full of energy.

Spiritual.We have been teaching a couple, Maria and Manoel. Sister Santos andSister White had met them knocking doors and taught them about therestoration. They had gone back once and Maria had been prettyuninterested, while Manoel was very interested. We taught them ourfirst week together too and they agreed to go to church. That Sundaythey didn't go though. So we went by again to see why and Manoel saidthat Maria woke up and said she wasn't going and started to fight withhim about it. Manoel started to fight back and so they just stayedhome mad at each other the whole day instead. LAME! Well Mariacontinued saying that she wouldn´t be going to our church and would bereturning to her church and didnt want to talk to us anymore. Manoelsaid he was giving up too and wouldn't go.

Well...that is when the Spirit came in and helped us A TON. We beganto bear our testimonies of the importance of the Restoration. ThatGod has truly restored HIS church on the earth. We testified thatthey could know this for themselves. We also testified of the realityof Satan and how he will do everything in his power to keep God´schildren from the truth. We invited them to follow Christ and notSatan and to go to Christ´s church on Sunday. I´ve never been quiteso bold in all my missionary life....but the Spirit was so strong andtheir attitudes completely changed. They committed to go to church.We tried stopping by on Saturday but they weren't home, so we left anote saying we would stop by there in the morning to go with them tochurch.

We came by about 8:30 in the morning and much to our joy, they were upand getting ready. We waited while they finished and eat breakfastand then we all got in their car and went up to the chapel. It was agood thing we went with them because they though it was a chapel for adifferent church that is close by. That could have been bad!

We took them inside and sat them down and a man from the ward came byand greeted them and told us he would get a member to go sit withthem. Awesome! Love the members here! So he sent over our dearfriend Maria Lucia and she helped them during sacrament meeting. Itwas an AMAZING Sacrament meeting. A high councilman spoke and broughtthe spirit super strong talking about how we are SO privileged tohave a prophet and inviting us to really prepare for conference andremember that when the Prophet speaks it is scripture. I was blessedto be able to sit behind the American family that is in the ward andtranslate for the wife. It was super hard but gratifying to be ableto help her finally understand what was being said at church!!

Then we went into the Gospel Principles class and had an awesomelesson about the Priesthood. And then Relief Society...the BESTPART!!! We had an amazing lesson about Charity and the teacher wasvery inspired. Everyone was teary eyed and Maria LOVED it. I gaveher a huge hug at the end of the class and she hugged me back supertight and I felt SO much love for her. Her whole outlook has changedsince that lesson we had with her. I am so grateful for the Spirit.It is Him who makes miracles happen.

Manoel also loved the elder´s quorum and agreed to go with them on aservice project they are doing this weekend. So awesome. They trulyloved the church and felt the spirit. We are going there tonight tocontinue helping them towards baptism, their endowments, theirsealing, and eternal life!!

I love the mission!

Thank you for your prayers and I love. I love you all!!!

Sister Knudsen

Edilson, Rose, and Larissa from Osasco.

Some of the decorations and the cakefrom the party we "pooped" (sorry I didn't rotate this!!!)

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Sister Erin Knudsen...

We are so excited that Erin will be serving an 18 month mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints! We know that her testimony will touch many, and her spirit will lift those who do not yet have the knowledge of the gospel in their lives. I will keep this blog updated with her letters, photos, and new addresses. Please comment, we would love to hear from all of you and she will treasure this when she get's home! We sure miss her, but are staying strong because we know that she is serving the Lord, and that is amazing.